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Senior Senate Republicans such as Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Richard Shelby of Alabama, with influential junior GOP senators such as Ted Cruz of Texas, are wary of embracing the sprawling bipartisan plan to revamp the nation’s immigration laws and provide a pathway to citizenship for the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

Some on the right, like Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and David Vitter of Louisiana, are emerging as outspoken critics of the plan because of what they see as “amnesty” to lawbreakers.

And the top two Senate Republican leaders, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, who both voted against the failed comprehensive immigration bill in 2007, are reacting cautiously to the latest effort. They may eventually be limited on what they can support, given their electoral pressures back home and the possibility of facing primary challenges in 2014.

“That’s obviously very controversial,” Cornyn told POLITICO when asked about the pathway to citizenship proposal. “And that’s one of the things that’s going to be at the center of the debate. But we’ll see how much the country has moved since 2007 and where people are.”

Asked if Texas primary voters could bless a pathway to citizenship, Cornyn was blunt: “Probably not.”

McConnell told reporters he’s waiting to see what happens in the Judiciary Committee. “I think predicting how one is going to vote on this package before it gets out of committee is something I’m not prepared to do,” McConnell said.

He’s not the only one waiting to see the bill. On the left, liberal Democrats are worried that as Congress debates the issue, lawmakers may end up omitting provisions sought by gay rights groups and fail to offer safeguards pushed by labor unions to protect low-wage workers. And moderate Democrats — particularly ones from red states who face voters in 2014 — don’t want to lay out their views on creating a pathway to citizenship until the legislative process begins in earnest.

“I want to see the legislation; there is no legislation yet,” said Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is up for reelection and voted against the comprehensive plan in 2007.